The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is a safety critical system that augments the Department of Defense Global Positioning System (GPS) Standard Positioning Service (SPS). The WAAS system is described by the WAAS Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS), identified as document RTCA/DO-229C, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Global Positioning System/Wide Area Augmentation System Airborne Equipment, 28 Nov. 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference and well known by one of ordinary skill in the art.
The WAAS provides a means for air navigation in the National Airspace System (NAS) from departure through en route and approach. The WAAS augments GPS with the following: a ranging function, which improves availability and reliability; differential GPS corrections, which improve accuracy; and integrity monitoring, which improves safety. The system provides a Signal-in-Space (SIS) to WAAS-certified aircraft avionics for any FAA approved phase of flight. The SIS provides various services including WAAS message broadcast, and ranging capability.
WAAS is divided into three types of sites; the Wide Area Reference Station (WRS), the Wide Area Master Station (WMS) and the GEO Uplink Subsystem (GUS). GUS refers to the GEO Uplink Subsystem implemented in the WAAS program and GUST refers to the GEO uplink Subsystem implemented in the Geostationary Communication and Control Segment (GCCS) program. Wide-Area Reference Stations (WRSs) are distributed throughout the U.S. National Airspace System. These reference stations collect GPS and GEO measurements and send them to the WMSs. The WMSs process the data to provide correctional and integrity information for each GEO and GPS satellite. The correction information includes as separate components the satellite ephemeris errors, clock bias, and ionosphere estimation data. The corrections from the WMS are sent to the GUST for uplink to the GEO.
The Geostationary Communication and Control Segment (GCCS) comprises two GUST subsystems and a GEO satellite. The two GUST subsystems are operationally independent of each other and geographically separated in order to mitigate simultaneous loss due to natural disasters, for example. One GUST subsystem operates as the primary uplink to the satellite while the other GUST subsystem operates as a backup, radiating into a dummy load. Each GUST subsystem includes two subsystems, the Signal Generator Subsystem (SGS) and the Radio Frequency Uplink (RFU) Subsystem. The SGS receives WAAS messages from the WMS and combines the WAAS message with the correct GPS L1 and L5 modulations and Pseudorandom Noise (PRN) Gold Codes to create the WAAS L1 and L5 uplink signals. The RFU receives these IF PRN coded L1 and L5 uplink signals from the SGS, converts them to the RF uplink frequencies, amplifies, and transmits the signals to the GEO Satellite.
The RFU receives the downlink L1 and L5 WAAS signals from the GEO Satellite, amplifies the signals and provides the resulting L1 and L5 signals to the SGS. The SGS extracts the GEO measurements and uses them as inputs to a control loop that adjusts the uplink signal to compensate for the uplink iono delay and Doppler effects such that the code and carrier phase of the downlink L1 and L5 signals are coherent. The GUST subsystem also contains a Cesium frequency standard used as the frequency reference for the signal generator and the receiver.